Kuta Karnival: How we can help improve it

The 2006 Kuta Karnival has been cancelled due to various reasons including security. For me this is a great opportunity to take a look at the Kuta Karnival and see how it can be improved.

Originally opened in 2003 after the first bombing, the Kuta Karnival was supposed to be a show of strength, helping the Kuta area generate excitement and revenue, not giving in the terrorists and stepping boldly into the future. Stretched over a week, the Kuta Karnival for me provided a strange bit of color, every time I drove by the beach, but not really anything I’d spend a lot of time on. I’ve met people who were involved in promoting it, who were all dizzy with excitement over it, but they aren’t paying customers. I’m not interested what the promoter has to say, I want to hear what the customer thinks about it.
They tried to stretch too few actual events over a time frame that was too long. Result: the atmosphere and excitement never really got of the ground. Okay on the last night they end with a bang, food court and music, dancing etc, but you need that energy going on for the entire event.
I’m going to talk to the organizers about compacting the time frame into a long weekend. Ideally the Kuta Karnival should be an annual event that people all over Asia mark on their calendars as something to go to. In the last 3 Kuta Karnivals there were people walking around on Jl. Legian who had no idea there was a Kuta Karnival.
Alright, we want fun, excitement and what else? I’m asking Aussies, Yanks, Euros and Asians. If you come to Bali and this 3 day long weekend, ‘Kuta Karnival 2.0’ is kicking off, what do you want? Here’s what I want. I want streets blocked off. I want Jl. Legian from Melasti to Pantai Kuta one big street party. I want bands on stages, dancers, streetside food and drinks, beer gardens. I want a non-stop line up of entertainment, going on all over that street, from midday to midnight.
When someone leaves Bali after that weekend, I want them to say they felt like they were at the Rio Carnival and had the best time of their life. If we do that, we will get Bali kick started the next level.